Monday, March 25, 2013

Terry [Tuck] Turner, training with the Naps down south, has been discoursing on the fine professional qualities of Raymond Bates, the kid from Newport News in the Virginia State league, who is trying to take Tuck’s job at third.

“He’s a dandy,” Tuck told a group of ball players. “He plays third as Bill Bradley did in his prime…I know it will pay to keep this fellow for a good long tryout, even if he stays on the bench most of the time. He’s a ball player.”

Terry has become so enthusiastic that when Bates picked up one of Terry’s bats, remarking that he liked it, Tuck told him he would get him three just like it from the factory.

Pure class.

Bates played 27 games with the 1913 Indians. After spending 1914-16 in the American Association and PCL, Bates was the starting third baseman for the 1917 Athletics. (This was shortly after Connie Mack blew up his powerhouse roster of the early 1910s and built the least expensive team he could.) Bates didn’t play particularly well - led the league’s third basemen in errors and put up an 84 OPS+ - and never again appeared in the majors.

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Yeah, I felt weird putting Mazzilli in RF. Milan also played almost exclusively in CF and, despite subpar dWAR numbers at BBRef, was fairly widely considered (by his contemporaries) on par with Cobb and Speaker on defense.

Either way, someone who wasn't really a right fielder was going to end up in right field.

Scott Erickson was definitely a guy who seemed to always be giving up seven runs a game and yet did not have disastrous stats. His postseason results (9 starts) are pretty good though. Even in the 1991 WS he gave up 3 runs in 6, and 3 runs in 4.2.

The historic ones are quite a grab bag of semi-legendary people as well.

Nearly five years after he was drafted, Navy Lt. Mitch Harris begins his pro career this season at age 28. He had about as bad a game as you can have in a major-league appearance for the Cardinals on Sunday, but still got a standing 'O' when he entered the game and more applause when he left. Cool story.

10-12 years ago I was sure that Cust would become a star, if only he could play in the AL where he could DH and not have to try and field. He did, finally, have several years as the Oakland DH, and, if his career is indeed over, he retires with an OPS+ of 120. I have always had a soft spot for TTO types, and Cust definitely fell into that category.